Indian-spiced Lamb Meatball Pizzas

Saturday, 7 October 2017

I especially like using lamb in Indian dishes as it can handle the lovely spices without them overpowering the lamb. A really easy and tasty favourite of mine is to make these Indian-spiced meatballs and serve on a soft tortilla; kinda pizza style. Soft tortillas topped with tomatoes, cucumber and mango chutney drizzled with cooling riata.

They're so easy to make and take just 35 minutes from prep to table; the perfect starter to an Indian meal to celebrate National Curry Week with Tasty Easy Lamb (9th -15th October).

I use tortillas as they're much lighter than a pizza dough base so make a great Indian tapas/starter dish to an Indian meal or a light lunch. You could also serve these mini meatballs minus the tortilla in little dishes with a few different dips. Or you could half the amount of filling and make them into wraps.

I think a lot of people are worried about cooking lamb because they think they may not be able to get it perfect, but it really is easy to cook. Lamb is such a versatile meat and can be used to make a huge variety of dishes. Perfect for skewers, burgers, or spicy middle eastern koftes or of course moussaka that reminds me of holidays in the Greek islands.

Yield: 26 Mini MeatballsAuthor: Jan Bennett

Indian-spiced Lamb Meatball Pizzas

ingredients:

Frylight spray - sunflower oil

250g lamb mince

1 small red onion - very finely chopped

1 smallish sized green chilli - very finely chopped

1 clove garlic - peeled and very finely chopped

Freshly chopped coriander - leaves only and enough to make a tablepoon

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 coriander

1/2 teaspoon hot chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of sea salt and black pepper

4 small soft tortillas

Garnish:

Mango Chutney (from a jar)

Freshly chopped coriander leaves

Tomatoes - deseeded and sliced

Cucumber - deseeded and sliced

Red onion - thinly sliced

Red or Green Chilli - thinly sliced

instructions

Put the lamb mince into a bowl and add the onion, chilli, garlic and freshly chopped coriander leaves. Sprinkle over the turmeric, coriander, chilli powder, cumin and cinnamon, sea salt and black pepper.

Mix the spices into the lamb taking care not to over mix or your meatballs will look mushy and lose texture. Take a tiny piece of the meatball mixture and fry in a pan till cooked then taste and adjust the seasoning of the mixture before continuing.

Once you're happy with the taste take a small amount and shape into a ball the size of a marble.

Repeat until you've used all the mixture; you'll end up with approx. 26 small meatballs.

Heat up a large frying pan and add one spray of oil. Cook the meatballs for a few minutes, turning so they brown evenly. They really won't take long to cook (about 5 minutes) as they're so small.

Spread mango chutney over the tortillas and add the meatballs and serve straight away.

Or how about traditional shepherds pie or slow cooked shanks that melt in the mouth; both perfect for a cold winter's day. So aside from the usual Sunday lamb roast I say give lamb a go and you won't be disappointed.

For loads of great information about Lamb pop over to the Tasty Easy Lamb website.